"'Me Too!' "Me Too'!" Pentecost 11A

Saint Luke 1:26-38

Saint Matthew 15:21-28

This morning I would like to talk with you about two women – two very strong women. Perhaps you might call them the original members of the “Me Too” movement for they stood up for what they believed in, called others to account, and made everyone they came in contact with live up to their higher selves.

The first is Mary, the Mother Our Lord.  

Our Roman Catholic sisters and brothers in the faith -- whom I hold in high regard and for whom I have a deep affinity -- celebrated her feast day yesterday. It is called the Assumption of the Virgin Mary because it is taught that on that day Mary was bodily taken up into heaven.  It is regarded as her heavenly birthday.

If you look at the Lutheran liturgical calendar (which I am sure you check every morning) yesterday was designated in her honour simply as Mary, Mother of Our Lord.  

Perhaps this is because we don’t really know what to do with Mary and that, as Harvard’s chaplain Dr. Peter Gomes once pointed out, “many of us suspect that she is a Catholic.”  In a sermon preached before his death  Dr. Gomes observed that those of us who are “‘pathologically protestant’ “don’t have much room in our spiritual household for Mary.”1

Perhaps we should because she is the subject of more paintings and statues than any other figure in Christendom. More churches are named for her than any other person in Scripture and, through the centuries, she has been the object of much popular piety and devotion.

We do not know the name of the other strong woman I want to draw your attention to.  Unlike Mary, there are no churches named for her.  And she is not a favourite among artists or sculptures.  Yet, today she is taking her place along side of Mary as one of the women of the bible whose stories have been passed down to us to remind us that women are not to be taken lightly.  Mary and the unnamed woman in today’s gospel can remind us not only of the power of faith but the tenacity of faith. 

Mary, the Mother of Our Lord, is often portrayed as a pushover. Perhaps that is because she is young but more likely it is because she was a girl.  

When she is depicted it is often as a serene figure, with loving eyes and a tender heart – sugar and spice and everything nice.  She is gentle Mary, meek and mild.  This picture couldn’t be further from the truth as her little encounter with the angel in today’s first reading shows. 

Who knows what Gabriel was thinking when he approached this young member of the peasant class with what he might have thought was the offer of a lifetime.  He is offering her a chance to be famous. He is offering her  a chance to play a huge part in history.  He is offering her nothing less than the honour of being the Mother of the Son of God.  Who could refuse such an offer? Mary could!

At first it looks like she is going to.  She has a huge question to ask of her heavenly messenger before she accepts the offer being put forth.  I have the feeling it probably stopped Gabriel in his tracks. As it has been paraphrased “Mary asked the angel, “‘But how can I have a baby? I am a virgin.’”2

Mary is joining the “Me Too” movement with a question mark.  She is not sure that the offer being put before her is a good one.  In fact, it is a offer that has the potential for ruining her entire life.  

She was betrothed to Joseph in an arrangement most likely made by their fathers.  To announce that she was “with child now” and that the child was of “unknown origin” would end the arrangement and bring shame to both families. It would also result in her estrangement from the community.  Before she gives all this up the angel has some explaining to do.

Writing for Time Magazine many years ago novelist Reynold’s Price described the encounter this way.

When she hesitated, assuming that this was some evil joke, the voice spoke again: “You’re free to refuse, and I’m free to tell you that should you accept...”3

 People always forget that Mary could have said “no.” She could have said, “Listen my fine winged friend I have Joseph and my whole life ahead of me and you’ve got the wrong person. I don’t have time for this! I don’t need this!  So, don’t let the door hit you in the wings on your way out!”

Nobody could accuse Mary of not being smart and direct.  She knows that there is something missing from the angel’s proposition. If she is going to have a baby she is going to need something she has not yet had.

If she is going to accept this offer she is going to have to do so on faith.  After what seems like an eternity she accepts.  She could have said “no” but instead she says of her own free will: “‘Here I am, the servant of the Lord; let it be with me according to your word.”4

The baby born to Mary and Joseph grew to be a man.  He challenged those in authority.   He healed the sick, fed the hungry, and reached across boundaries of race, and class, and creed.  He was living out the words his mother prophesied about him when she sang to her cousin Elizabeth, “My soul proclaims your greatness, O Lord, and my sprit rejoices in you. You have cast the mighty down from their thrones, and uplifted the humble of heart. You have filled the hungry with wondrous things, and left the wealthy no part.”

Apparently however, by the time today’s gospel rolls around Jesus had forgotten the words of his mother’s song.  In his encounter with the unknown, unnamed Canaanite woman, he seems to be doing just the opposite of what his mother sang about. He is not doing wondrous things for those who hunger for healing.  In fact, he is having no part of them.  

The woman, this outsider is yelling “Me Too!” with an exclamation point.  She comes to him not just shouting but the Greek word is screaming for mercy for he tormented daughter.  There is no question mark here! She willing to risk crossing the boundaries of  social, religious, and cultural norms to receive healing for her daughter and Jesus seems to be giving into those norms. 

Lance Pape, Professor of Preaching at Texas Christian University wrote splendidly of today’s gospel.

This passage, read aloud in Christian worship, is a scandal. In fact, this text might be a good test of who is paying attention during the Gospel reading. (Hint: The people with worried looks were actually listening.) It is not often that we catch Jesus with his compassion down, so to speak. This is not the Jesus we think we know.5

 First he tries to ignore her and then, when that doesn’t work,  he insults her. 

“It is not right, you know,” Jesus replied, “to take the children’s food and throw it to the dogs.”6 

Did Jesus just say that?  Did Jesus just compare this woman’s daughter to a dog?  

Fortunately for us this woman is not one to be ignored because she is convinced that her daughter deserves healing and Jesus is the one to do it.  In fact, he had better do it because not only her daughter’s future but the future of his ministry depended on it.  

In one sentence she reminds him that he is his mother’s son and if he is going to be what his mother thought he was going to be he had better listen and honour her goals for his life.  “Yes, Lord, I know, but even the dogs live on the scraps that fall from their master’s table!”7

She has him!  She has Jesus right where she wants him.  This rabbi who has done verbal battle with the best and brightest minds in all Jerusalem has been verbally bested by this strong woman who reminded him that he was the son of another strong woman whose high hopes for him are about to go unfulfilled.

In the moments between his hearing her response and his granting her wish you can almost hear his mother’s voice running through his head.  What was it that she taught him about justice and fairness?  What was it that she said about his needing to always be on the side of the outcast and downtrodden?  Hadn’t he, because of the rumours around his conception, been an outsider too?  Hadn’t his mother bourn the brunt gossip about him just like this mother was bearing weight of worry over her daughter’s illness?

Jesus was now faced with the central question of his ministry.  Was it for everybody or not?  Was he sent to only a few or was he was sent for everybody?  He had to decide. If he wasn’t on the side of this woman and her daughter than his ministry would be just as limiting, just as exclusionary, as all the other teachers and preachers around him.

Not to act would not only betray the central question of his ministry it would deny his mother’s dreams for him. He would just be another who sent the hungry away empty.

This persistent woman is reminding Jesus that his ministry was not just for a few chosen people but for her, her daughter, everybody.  By shouting “Me too!” in his face she is reminding him of his true calling. She is reminding him of the dreams God and his mother had for him.  She was reminding him that the salvation he offered was to be for all people.

These two women – Mary whose name everybody knows and the outsider whose name nobody knows – have a message for these divided times.  It is a message of inclusion not exclusion.  It is a message that is as counter-cultural as Mary predicted.  It is a message which says that God’s “Me Too” includes everybody.

As The Rev’d Courtney Allen Crump reminded me recently in a masterful sermon:

 As followers of Jesus in this time and place this is our call. This means we have to do more than just know that there are no dividing lines or boundaries when it comes to God’s all-encompassing love. We have to live and love and show up and speak out and advocate for just and equitable ways of living together—for we belong to God and we belong to each other.8

May we be as outspoken as Mary, the Mother of our Lord, was with this message and as brave, and persistent, and fierce as the woman was for her daughter in proclaiming that God’s “Me Too” includes everybody. 

That is our message! That is our charge!  May we all say “me too” to playing our part in making this so.  Amen.

____________

1. “Religions - Christianity: The Assumption of Mary,” BBC (BBC, July 21, 2011), https://www.bbc.co.uk/religion/religions/christianity/beliefs/assumption.shtml.

2.  Saint Luke 1:34. (TLB) [TLB=The Living Bible. (Carol Stream, IL: Tyndale House Publishers Inc., 1971)

3. Reynolds Price, “Jesus Of Nazareth,” Time (Time Inc., November 28, 1999), http://content.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,35079-3,00.html.

4. St. Luke 1:38. (NRSV) [NRSV=The New Revised Standard Version]

5. Lance Pape, “Matthew 15:(10-20) 21-28,” Connections: A Lectionary Commentary for Preaching and Teaching 3 (Louisville: KY: Westminister|John Knox Press, 2020): pp. 242-244.

6. St. Matthew 15:26. (PHILLIPS) [PHILLIPS=J. B. Phillips, The New Testament in Modern English (London: HarperCollins, 2000).

7. St. Matthew 15:27. (PHILLIPS)

8. Courtney Allen Crump, “On Changing One's Mind,” A Sermon For Every Sunday, August 10, 2020, https://asermonforeverysunday.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/08/Courtney-Allen-Crump-Canaanite-Woman.pdf.